WASHINGTON, Sept 11: In a message released on the fifth anniversary of 9/11, Al Qaeda warned the US, Israel and America’s Arab allies in the Gulf to brace themselves for future attacks.

In a 92-minute video, monitored in the US, al-Qaeda’s deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri claimed that the US-led forces were doomed to fail. “I tell them do not bother yourselves with defending your forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. These forces are doomed to failure,” he said.

Five years ago, terrorists associated with Al Qaeda commandeered two planes into the World Trade Centre towers in New York and one on the Pentagon building in Washington, killing almost 3,000 people.

Zawahiri said Israel continued to be a target because of its anti-Muslim and anti-Arab policies while the Gulf states were being targeted because of their pro-American stance.

“And the days are pregnant and giving birth to new events, with Allah’s permission and guidance,” he said on a separate video aired on CNN, which appeared to be new.

Zawahiri warned the US and its allies that they have to bolster their defences in two areas, “the first is the Gulf, from which you will be evicted, God willing, after you are defeated in Iraq and then your economic doom will be achieved.”

“And the next (target) is Israel. The current of holy war is closing on it and your end there will put an end to the Zionist-crusader supremacy.”

Zawahiri also condemned UN forces in Lebanon as “enemies of Islam”, the first implicit threat against the peacekeeping troops.

Zawahiri also blasted a UN resolution which ended a 34-day war between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

“The biggest problem with resolution 1701 and similar resolutions designed to humiliate Muslims is that they provide protection to the Jewish state and isolate the Mujahideen in Palestine from the Muslims in Lebanon by deploying international forces that are the enemies of Islam.”

Soon after the video was aired, a United Airlines flight en route from Atlanta to San Francisco was diverted to Dallas due to “suspicious activity”, CNN reported, citing the North American Aerospace Defence Command. It was dismissed as “an abundance of caution”.